Skydiving Company's Plane Lost, 10 Missing

A search for a missing plane began on Monday. The plane is registered to Kapowsin Air Sports of Shelton, Wash. Ten people from Skydive Snohomish were scheduled to be on board, but they are unsure as to how many were actually onboard.

A hunter in an area called White Pass said he saw a plane low in the air, and heard a crash around 8 p.m. Sunday night. The search area has been reduced greatly, due to the hunter's info and radar info, in an area on the Tieton River's north fork.

The plane's emergency locater wasn't activated. The passengers' names haven't been released, but their families have been notified. Kapowsin has never lost a plane in its 60 year history.

From the source "Temperatures were between 35-40 degrees at 8 p.m., with some light precipitation and heavy clouds, said meteorologist Steve Bodnar of the National Weather Service in Spokane. Wind gauges to the east at Sedge Ridge showed winds of between 11-20 mph, with gusts to 46 mph."

f the temperature was at the low end, and they were in light precipitation, they were in icing conditions whether they wanted to be or not. Given that air cools approx. 2-3 deg C for every 1000 FT and they were climbing (or at least indtending to) they iced up and could not recover. The temperature and precipitation sure don't sound good jumping weather to me.